A State of Sin a State of Debt.
I. We are all debtors to God. Having failed to discharge the debt of obligation, we now owe a debt of punishment.
II. We are debtors in different degrees.
III. We are unable to pay our debts. Not only debtors, but bankrupts.
IV. God is willing, for Christ's sake, freely to forgive us all.
V. Our love to God should be proportioned to the amount of the debt which He has forgiven.
G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 55.
The Forgiveness of Sins the Remission of a Debt.
I. Sin is a debtthat is the primary idea of this parable. But I can well understand a thoughtful person saying, "I can see the beauty and truth of this illustration. There is a burden which each man bears the burden of the sense of sin, from which he yearns to be delivered. But there are other aspects of sin which the parable of a money-debt does not seem to me to include or to cover, because such an obligation lies altogether outside the sphere of morals. A debtor need not be a sinner; the creditor may have no cause for anger against him. Moreover, if the money were paid, the obligation would be at an end. I want to know how far offences of another kind, moral derelictions of man against man, are analogous in nature and in remedy to our sins against a just and righteous God?"
II. We are all debtors. We owe to God that which we can never pay for ourselves. What we need, therefore, is a remission of the debt. If we bear this well in mind, we shall look upon sin and death with truer eyes. Exemption from any penalty, supposed to be incurred by non-payment of the debt, could not benefit us. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Here the word debtors is clearly used for all who have failed to pay us our due, whether that due be money or the commoner obligations of everyday life. Every time an offence is committed against us, it is a debt that is incurred. Our friend owes us something which he has not paid. The language of the Lord's Prayer, as recorded by St. Matthew, strictly accords with that of the parable of the two debtors. A friend does us a wrong. It is for us either to retain or remit the debt he has incurred. We are willing to remit his debt, if he is willing that it should be remitted. It is impossible to forgive where forgiveness is not desired. I cannot remit the debt of sin which my brother has incurred unless he is willing that it should be remitted. His debt is love, and no suffering or penalty could restore that broken link. Reconciliation is a bond of righteousness. The offender cannot be forgiven without penitence on his side. If it pleased God to save us from hell-fire, still He could not save us from an avenging conscience. It is idle, and worse than idle, for us to murmur against a revelation of hell. If there is a heaven, there must be a hell. If the pure in heart see God, the vision of the impure must be sin and Satan.
A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church,p. 115.
Reference: Luke 7:41-44. W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons,vol. iii., p. 218.